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Heather's Workbench - Belgium, 1940


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Heather wrestling with a loco? Don't believe it for a moment

 All your modeling work is wonderful

 All the best 

 

p.s. its not a gateneal kit is it ? lol

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Your Hurricane is hitting all the right spots, certainly better than mine especially considering I used the Airfix new tool one (and I am quite proud of it: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP11T9Igb8OhsCdECqwk1YFk8VtKd2buSopTwcakZ96Phunzd5YxhOvpMG2MiLDmg?key=VjV1Q3ZMRXhHN0FDQU9aWGdiT2xoVnNSWloyUXFB)

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29 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

You may mention the wingtip lights. I choose to ignore them, as most kit manufacturers tend to do at this scale. They might get a dab of paint if I remember. Actually, that might be something worth my whole next time I clean the display models.

Speaking as someone who's just made navigation lights for four Hurricanes, that's a very sensible way of doing it.

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8 hours ago, Stevejj said:

Heather wrestling with a loco? Don't believe it for a moment 

This one is fighting me, so wrestling is apt. It’s a Mitchell kit, by way of Just Like The Real Thing.

7 hours ago, PattheCat said:

Your Hurricane is hitting all the right spots

It was your photos that encouraged me to do the Hurricane this time. Lovely work, Pat.

6 hours ago, Captain Mark said:

there's some very impressive work there! 👍

You are too kind. Most of my commissions end up looking nice.

6 hours ago, LorenSharp said:

Heather I'd have to say that little Hurricane is purdier than a new set of snow tires. Excellent work.

Now that’s a phrase I don’t recall hearing before! Thank you.

2 hours ago, Beard said:

Speaking as someone who's just made navigation lights for four Hurricanes, that's a very sensible way of doing it.

The only model with wing tip lights is the Beaufighter, and only because they were in the kit as transparencies. I find it simpler to tend towards ignoring them because it’s often not obvious whether the light had a coloured bulb or a coloured glazed fairing.

 

I've reviewed the Hu56. Compared to photos, it’s very dull, so a coat of Metalcote ally will be done.

 

 

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6 hours ago, LorenSharp said:

Heather I'd have to say that little Hurricane is purdier than a new set of snow tires. Excellent work.

As opposed to the WEST Virginia version which would no doubt reference female relatives....

 

Ian

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49900760407_40b41ed2ab_b.jpg

 

Humbrol makes two types of aluminium Metalcote enamel. There’s a flat Aluminium (27001) and Polished (27002). I thought it might be fun to use the polished version on the metal panels. I haven’t actually gone over it with a cloth or cotton bud yet, but there’s a difference already between polished and flat. I am thinking I need to use polished on the wing and tail leading edges.

 

More later, as I need to refine the leading edge colours.

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36 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

As opposed to the WEST Virginia version which would no doubt reference female relatives....

 

Ian

That is probably true Ian, even though I do live in Western Virginia as opposed to West "by God" Virginia which is 50 km to my west.

 

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Well, that went quickly.

 

49900766533_8f19b5602d_b.jpg

 

49900766453_ce1bd46e0e_b.jpg

 

The upside-down view shows how the polished aluminium differs from the flat. I’ve been using Humbrol Decalfix on matt or semi-matt surfaces as a bedding coat for the transfers to float on to. I have to say, it does seem to keep silvering to a minimum. The 22 on the port lower has a large area of carrier which I’d normally trim out before application. We will see how it looks when things have dried. 
 

49901282996_f1c613e7c0_b.jpg

 

On the whole these donated Airfix transfers have behaved well. This roundel - oh, that I might have seen it before dropping it the water because it might have been better underneath - seems to have suffered a printing malfunction. It resulted in the yellow partially coming away along a fissure, and part of the roundel cracking apart. I managed to save most of it. I have spare roundels I bought in for this part of my 1940 obsession, which I so far haven’t needed to use. I may be able to repair the crack with a grafted section from the spares, as long as the colours match. Failing that, a complete new roundel will be needed.

 

I am now wondering whether to set up the airbrush to spray a protective satin coat over the model. 

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36 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

 

I am now wondering whether to set up the airbrush to spray a protective satin coat over the model. 

Excellent job on the decals Heather. Even though its a pain in the backside with the airbrush, a protective coat might be wise in preventing teeth gnashing later.

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52 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

Excellent job on the decals Heather. Even though its a pain in the backside with the airbrush, a protective coat might be wise in preventing teeth gnashing later.

Indeed. I think it’ll be warm enough to do it tomorrow.

 

49901598066_5f8304053c_b.jpg

 

As I feared, my backup stash has a different shade of yellow. Would you believe it also doesn’t have a roundel size to match those printed by Airfix? Just before I resorted to attempting to mix the shade from the paint box, I wondered if the spare RAF roundels on the sheet had the same yellow for the outer ring. Well, yes, they did. One roundel duly sacrificed a segment, and if you look really closely you can see the repair. It’ll do. 
 

Some silvering happened on the large 22, as I thought it might. It also happened a bit on the rudder numerals, too. A sharp point stabbed around, followed by a coat of Decalfix, will hopefully alleviate some of it. 

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3 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

 

49901282996_f1c613e7c0_b.jpg

 

 

Gosh! I didn't notice any flaw before I sent you those decals. They were still in the kit box up to the time I packaged them for mailing. The only time they were out was when I cut out the instrument panel decal. 

 

49901614873_5797bb7b7f_o.jpg

 

 

 

Chris

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20 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

Gosh! I didn't notice any flaw before I sent you those decals.

It only became apparent once in the water. I apportion no blame, unless it was me being a doofus. ;)

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49905745048_6ba339a37f_b.jpg

 

And we are done, and posed with the fleet so far. I know there are plenty of other types used by Belgium in the period. I have a Fairey Fox MkVII to build - the only kit I could find at the moment and it happens to be the sole variant of the type! One day I might stumble across a MkVI, but until then the Kangarou Monofox will have to suffice. 
 

The Hurricane RFI is here:

 

 

 

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Nice group! It’s strange how having roundels  that aren’t red-white-blue jars on my eyes. I should get out more...

 

I very much liked the metal vs fabric aluminium too.

 

And if you really want to get the damn’ thing off the bench and can’t be bothered to cut out wingtips, glue in and shape and polish a piece of clear plastic after first drilling a hole in it and putting the right colour paint in, there’s always this:

0247-F750-9213-4-C70-A7-FB-020-DFC3522-A

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

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1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Nice group! It’s strange how having roundels  that aren’t red-white-blue jars on my eyes. I should get out more...

 

I very much liked the metal vs fabric aluminium too.

 

And if you really want to get the damn’ thing off the bench and can’t be bothered to cut out wingtips, glue in and shape and polish a piece of clear plastic after first drilling a hole in it and putting the right colour paint in, there’s always this:

0247-F750-9213-4-C70-A7-FB-020-DFC3522-A

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

Yeah. It's not too hard. I did it.

 

49831221041_fbefb2d7b7_b.jpg

 

 

 

Chris

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7 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

It’s strange how having roundels  that aren’t red-white-blue jars on my eyes. I should get out more...

Wait until I get into Dutch planes. Mmm, orange triangles!

 

I'm in two minds about the wingtip lights. If I start doing them, I’ll feel obliged to retrofit to the older models. I’m not keen on reworking old ground, with the risk of damage quite high. I think I’m more likely to head down a trompe l'oeil effect.

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